How I Stopped Contact Form Spam without a Captcha

I know you’ve seen this email, and if you’re like me, a little piece of you dies every time you get one.

It almost makes you want to take down the contact form on your website. But what if someone wants to contact you??? You could be missing out on some awesome opportunities if no one can get in touch.

And CAPTCHAs are such a pain in the ass, I don’t want to put my visitors through that. It’s like giving a paying customer an eye exam before they’re allowed to check out.

I mean, honestly, what the hell is that???

But by adding a simple required checkbox that makes the user promise not to submit spam, spam has almost completely stopped for two sites that I run (including this one).

In the 6 months before these additions, I got anywhere between 20-40 spam emails per month. In the month since, I’ve gotten zero.

That’s right, zero. And now I’ve probably jinxed myself and will get a million spam emails in the next week.

Oh man, please don’t spam me.

Update: Nooooooo I got my first spam message in over 3 months. Dammit Dan at dealsforliving.com. YOU BROKE THE CODE SO HERE IS YOUR PUBLIC SHAMING.